Archive for May, 2011

Day 1: Costa Rica

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

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4:00 The Super Shuttle picked us up at 3:30. Yawn.

7:10 They just announced a flight delay due to mechanical issues. We only have a one hour layover in Houston. Hope we make our connection.

10:30 Pilot made up some time. Watched I Am Number Four on our new iPads. Landed in Houston just a bit late.

11:45 Just reached the gate in time. Boarded. Flight delay due to mechanical issues. Someone broke the toilet.

2:00 Slept through parts of Iron Man 2.

2:30 Made it to San Jose but can’t get off the plane. Mechanical issues with the jetway. Don’t care at all. Happy to be away.

4:00 Hotel El Rodeo has really nice rooms. Beautiful. it’s pouring rain. Time to hit the mall!

5:30 Visited very cute baby puppies and a kitty at the pet store. I have a weakness for hot churros and we found a place that dips and stuffs them. Split one covered in white chocolate and nuts and stuffed with dulce de leche. Mmmm. Also bought a ring and Todd a new iPhone case for $8.

9:00 Dinner back at El Rodeo steakhouse. 100 pushups 100 back extensions while Todd was in the shower. Good thing he showered quick. The firm bed is exactly 24″ high and I was starting to get ideas about jumping on it.

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One last workout before the trip

With only one day left before we leave for our trip I am pretty much ready to go. At the last minute I decided to hit one more CrossFit workout before we leave. Today was “Murph” named after Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005. Perfect workout for Memorial Day and perfect beat down before the trip. I usually run the Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day but decided to skip it this year to save a little time. Last year’s Bolder Boulder time: . First ever attempt at Murph: 46:00. That definitely doesn’t break any records. As always the push ups killed me. But I’m determined to eventually turn those into a strength.

“Murph”
For time:
Run 1 mile
100 Pullups
200 Pushups
300 Squats
Run 1 mile
Time: 46:00

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8 hours straight

run Yesterday we went shopping for 8 hours straight. What a marathon. All we needed was luggage and a few T-shirts for our upcoming trip to Costa Rica. 8… hours… straight. Don’t get me wrong. I love to shop. We had a blast and got what we needed. But I don’t think you should do anything for that long without a break except sleep.

Tell that to my new tenant. He’s an ultramarathon runner. Double marathons, 100 mile races, 24 hours races, multi day events. He aspires to complete the 1000 mile challenge in Silverton where you have 18 days to complete the same 1 mile loop 1000 times at nearly 10,000 feet in altitude.

For one thing, I can barely keep track of what round I’m on in a 5 rounds for time Crossfit workout. I’m trying to imagine what I would do with 1000 rounds for time. It would probably include profanity. Also I have a hard time imagining what it would be like to run around in circles for 18 days. Even a 5k would get monotonous. 3 loops down 9997 to go… 18 days of running at altitude? I wonder how many ambulances they have in Silverton.

Anyway, the next time I’m feeling bored in a 20 minute workout that is "rounds for time" I will remember that relatively speaking it was almost over when it started.

Sadly I lost a pair of sunglasses somewhere in the outlet mall that had been a gift from Todd  🙁 But that prompted us both to get new pairs. We finally bought a pair that Todd spotted at an Oakley store in Hawaii almost 6 years ago and that I had tried on dozens of times since. Thanks, Todd!

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The challenge at last night’s class

Interesting twist on last night’s workout. The timed workout was one heavy power clean every 30 seconds for 10 minutes. I guess we aren’t really used to having that much time to rest. Two of the guys challenged each other to hold a plank during the rest periods. On the next set a few more people joined in. Then a few more. By the 4th or 5th set the whole class was doing it. Not sure what caused it. The competiveness or the natural tendency to try to think of creative ways to make workouts harder. It sounded like it would be hard but In the end wasn’t even really that difficult. We wondered if we should have done pushups or burpees or something harder. Never know how hard something will be until you try and it is always good to constantly be challenging yourself to do more than you thought you could. Great class. Very inspiring. I’ll post a photo if I can get my hands on one.

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Beefaroni

beefaroni I was grocery shopping the other day and one of the aisles had a little speaker in it that was playing an ad for Beefaroni. The point of the ad was to let moms know that it is made with whole grains making it a healthy choice for kids. Serious? That is so ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against Beefaroni. Personally, I prefer the Mini Raviolis but it’s basically the same stuff.

I just found it kinda funny that Beefaroni was being marketed as health food for kids. In the frozen foods section I was waiting for a voice to tell me that ice cream is a great choice for breakfast because it contains milk. Call it what it is. When you eat ice cream it is not because you want to nourish your body its cause you like the taste. It feeds your soul. When you eat a lot of unhealthy food you are simply choosing to satisfy an urge and not to optimize your health. If I decide to have macaroni and cheese for dinner I am not going to kid myself that the whole grains in the noodles are going to counter the pool of melted processed cheese powder and butter they are swimming in. I think it is better to know exactly why you eat something and not get the purpose mixed up like that.

We did a good job of this yesterday. We came across a couple recipes on our meal plan that we did not really enjoy. They satisfied the hunger and the nutrition but definitely not the desire for yummy food. But our priority right now is eating better. So at the moment its just fuel. That mindset made it easier to just go ahead and eat it instead of heading to Smash burger. We’ll get our flex day soon enough. No need to spend it on Day 3.

Day 4
Todd: 169
Karen: 139

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Survived the barbecue

baconcheeseburgerdoughnuts One of the hardest parts of following any kind of diet plan for me is social events. For our challenge we were tempted to simply avoid them for the next couple weeks. That is not desirable and not even practical. On the very first night we were invited to a barbecue at my dad’s for some family in town for just a few days. Don’t want to miss that. Somehow even though the little ones liked showing me different flavors of Jelly Bellies we still both made it through without a hitch. So it is possible. Difficult but possible. There are birthdays coming up, more barbecues, grandma wants to have me come over. We can’t just hole up for 3 weeks, especially with the weather so nice. So we’ll have to figure out a way to make it work.

Day 2
Todd’s weight: 169
Karen’s weight: 141

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The End of the Anti-Diet

paleo_man Not caring much about what I eat for the past month has been pretty nice. The first couple weeks while the scale was out of the bathroom actually went really well. I cooked a lot, ate well, and I didn’t really miss weighing myself. I even dropped a pound. The past couple weeks wasn’t quite so good. I have had a lot more chocolate than a person really needs. Mentally, though, it has been really nice to just forget about it for awhile. However, I don’t want to let loose for too long. It is easy for me to start backsliding to the point where it starts doing real damage.

Todd has been thinking about trying a Paleo-sih diet for awhile now to see how it might affect his performance, energy levels, and the last inch or two around his waist. He found ThePaleoPlan.com and decided he kinda wants to try it. That could not have come at a more perfect time. We have 22 days left before we leave on vacation so between now and then, starting today, we have challenged ourselves to follow the meal plans at ThePaleoPlan.com. (We will be adding supplemental protein shakes and possibly a little dairy). We have very low discipline when it comes to consistently eating healthy so it will really help to do it together. Wish us luck!

Karen’s starting weight: 142
Todd’s starting weight: 171.5

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What a coward

osamaI have been glued to the news about the raid that brought down Osama bin Laden. It has been very exciting but also very aggravating. I am wondering how Al Qaeda feels about their founder and  former commander preaching ‘violent jihad’ and glorified suicide in the name of religion and then cowering behind a woman to avoid a bullet. I am not sure what makes my blood boil more. That or the idea that he probably did it because the woman was just another disposable object in the room. Who knows. The woman may have been just as evil or worse. Or maybe there was no woman at all. I am sure we will never know what it was really like when things went down. But it doesn’t matter. I will always have a vision in my head of him trembling like a little girl and throwing a woman into the line of fire. What a [fill in expletive here].

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2nd place for the world record…

chesttobarpullups Event 6:
7:00 to increase reps by 3 ea round for total reps as follows:
3 thrusters @ 65 (100)
3 chest to bar pull ups
6 thrusters
6 chest to bar pull ups
9 thrusters
9 chest to bar pull ups…. (and so on for 7 min)

Well first of all, Saturday I did not improve my score for Event 6. The chest to bar pull ups got sloppy and as a result I was down to one at a time much sooner than Wednesday. Scored 101 in the event though. Certainly can’t complain about that. They are still a little awkward but obviously getting better. Without the couple extra reps I was hoping for it was anybody’s guess where I would end up. You can’t totally trust the leader board but as it stands right now, my finish is 56th in the Region. Whew!

It is not official but according to the scoreboards I am now 2nd place in the world for the title of the girl from any region to have the worst score in an individual workout but still qualify for Regionals. Hahaha! One girl from the US Southeast region managed to do even worse on overhead squats than I did and still grabbed 57th in her region. Nice! 

MBS CrossFit is now 3rd in the region. Incredibly talented and hardworking group of people. 3 of our guys landed in the top 10 with Event 6 scores of 126, 123, and 134! Another qualified in 19th scoring 130 in the last event! 3 of our girls also qualified and a 4th just barely missed. Up through about two weeks ago she could hardly do a single chest to bar pull up but suddenly pulled out 30 of them! What a stud!

It was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. It was also a little more stress than it should have been but totally worth doing. Regionals, here we come…

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